The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is setting up a 'Partnership Forum on HIV/AIDS' to coordinate the efforts of various agencies in the field, share information, and to ensure zero duplication of interventions, projects and financial resources.

The forum is envisaged as a voluntary association, which will co-ordinate the agencies and institutions involved in the prevention, care, support, mitigation, treatment, and research in the field of HIV/AIDS in India. Specifically, it would aim at sharing information about the work-in-hand with different agencies, facilitate collaboration and develop a joint programme for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the response to HIV/AIDS in India, said a NACO communication inviting Expressions Of Interest (EOI) from organizations interested in joining the Partnership Forum with a deadline on 1st of December 2003.

NACO would set up an information-sharing centre at the Secretariat of the Partnership Forum, which would make available all updated information to the members. Members would have to reveal information regarding the scope of their work, geographic location of projects, partners involved, period of activity and their respective budgets, said sources.

Another aspect of the Partnership Forum is to promote collaborative ventures between one or more members of the forum on a specific project by entering into MoUs. With a view to avoid duplication of projects and programmes, the Forum plans to make available details of the joint programmes to other partners.

The forum also envisages developing programmes and projects through joint planning and co-ordination. One or more members of the forum could mutually develop specific programmes wherever a joint programme for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation could be developed, said sources.

Sources said membership of the Partnership Forum would be limited to agencies that qualify certain specific criteria like any UN agency which manages programmes on the disease, bilateral donor agencies, the national network of positive people, agencies or institutions operating HIV/AIDS programmes in three or more states, the state Partnership Forums of NGOs implementing AIDS Control Programmes, any academic institution that conducts research into the bio-medical and social aspects of the disease, institutions with an annual HIV/AIDS budget of over Rs 1 crore etc.

Various agencies and institutions in the field have been asking to institute a monitoring and information sharing mechanism to co-ordinate and augment efforts to control AIDS in the country. Very often data related to AIDS released by different agencies were found to be contradictory, mainly due to lack of a mechanism to pool, study and analyze various data.

Sources noted the country have been witnessing an increasing number of multilateral and bilateral organizations, national and international NGOs, registered societies, public and private Trusts and Foundations demonstrating interest and involvement in the response to HIV/AIDS, though there is no mechanism to co-ordinate the efforts of these agencies. The NACO move is aimed to bring in the necessary information sharing and synergy among and between the diverse agencies.

It is to be noted that NACO directs and coordinates the National AIDS Control Programme in the country, considered as the largest national AIDS control programme in the world.